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User talk:Specialk16
Talk Archive 1/2/12-3/11/12 Hi! (continued) (For ThunderShadow and Specialk16's conversation) Sounds good to me. Go to 3:00 for sleep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugguciB9w1U This time you won't 00:33, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Probably. Also, do I need to edit in the right section? Not sure if I ned to put it in Hi, or if I can just click leave message. This time you won't 01:56, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Ok, no prob. Have you ever heard of NationStates? This time you won't 21:04, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Sorry, I had to go home fast. :P http://www.nationstates.net/nation=prostino is my nation. You basically create a "nation" and choose issues, e.g In recent weeks, there has been growing concern over the quality of automobiles made in Prostino. Representatives from all sides have gathered in your office and are asking you to make a decision. The Debate #"This is ridiculous!" cries Margaret King, chairperson of the Association of Scorned Shoppers, while frantically waving a stack of papers. "Some of these stories are just obscene! We've got water pumps ceasing at 12,000 kilometers, airbags not deploying in accidents, and this one guy's gas tank just fell off! I can't make this stuff up! Our auto industry has gotten lazy and corrupt and is in desperate need of stronger regulation!" #"I've never heard such nonsense!" scoffs Chastity Jamieson, an executive representing Prostino's largest automaker. "Our cars are perfectly fine! These allegations are completely baseless. Thing is, these proposed regulations are going to make us uncompetitive. Is this what you want? Foreign cars clogging our streets while our factories close down? Get rid of some of the regulations we have now, so we can do our jobs! While you're at it, a government subsidy would safeguard domestic auto manufacturing ..." #"What is this? Subsidies? Deregulation? Lies, all of it!" shouts prominent communist Kathleen Laine, sporting a practical yet stylish red beret. "These companies, they're always willing to sell their ethics for a quick Armoriar! They always cut corners for a little extra profit, and look where it's gotten us! You want to make good cars, cars the people can be proud of? Have the people take control of the car companies! If we remove the profit motive, Prostino can finally produce quality vehicles, without wasteful bourgeois stuff like chrome wheels, air conditioning, and reclining seats!" #A wheelchair-bound man wearing a bicycle helmet on his head, plaster casts on his legs, and an irate expression on his face rolls himself into your office. "Hey, I got somethin' to say," he growls as he deliberately bumps into your desk. "You and your government have been playing nice with the car companies for far too long, and a lot of us cyclists are sick of it. I might have an axe to grind, but Prostino and our environment'll be better off if you just banned cars entirely. Who cares if people complain? They'll adjust." Then you choose one, and your economy, civil rights or political freedoms will go up, down, or stay the same. It is also a cool way to meet new people and be the everloved ruler of a utopia, or the cruel dictator of 3 billion, wanted dead by 2,999,999,999. (that is supposed to be 2 billion, 999 thousand and 999.) This time you won't 21:36, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Yep, it is awesome. This time you won't 03:51, March 13, 2012 (UTC) Yep! And try to go for the best economy/civil rights/political freedoms. This time you won't 21:22, March 13, 2012 (UTC) Cool. Now... a lot of people will tell you to join their region. LOOK FOR THE REJECTED REALMS. They are literally the best region in NS, and ignore the Nazis, (they post everywhere) and look for The Empire of Prostino. That's me. :D Also, can you send me a link? It ain't on google. :/ This time you won't 23:34, March 13, 2012 (UTC) They basically post stuff like this. ACHTUNG! HEIL! I vill slap you vizh My leather glove for lying about Us by calling Us „fake“, The Star Empire of Spartan Termopylae! Humor ist a personality trait of decadent degenerates and ist zherefore verboten in the Greater German Reich! Zhat ist true, The Flagship of NHSS Liberator. Zhere vill only be a malicious smile on Our faces vhen Ve experience Schadenfreude from torturing Our inferiors. SS-Untersturmführerin Stoßtrupp Adolf Hitler The Greater German Reich This time you won't 23:39, March 13, 2012 (UTC) Well, you can chat with other people on the Regional Message Board, click on the green sign that says The Rejected Realms, and scroll all the way to the bottom. And you might want to read this. http://www.nationstates.net/page=faq This time you won't 00:09, March 14, 2012 (UTC) Eh, I'm pretty good. Going to Chapters (The Canadian version of Barnes and Noble) to get a book for spring break. This time you won't 20:34, March 17, 2012 (UTC) Mostly fiction/dystopian, stuff like that. I am reading the Gone series by Micheal Grant. It's basically about a town where all of a sudden everyone over the age of 14 dissapears, and there is a giant dome over the town. Then people develop powers and a strange creature lurks in the hills... If Steven King wrote Lord of the Flies, it would be something like that. It has horror, adventure, and other awesome stuff. Guaranteed to make you look over your shoulder if you read it at 3 in the morning. :D This time you won't 00:03, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Nice. What series is it? May the stars watch 01:27, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Oh yeah! I've heard of those! Are they good? May the stars watch 02:22, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Sounds great. Also, not sure if I have asked you this, but there is a girl I want to ask out. I hate movie theaters (I'll telegram the reason to you on NS), so I need another idea that is relatively cheap, that still has something to do. Thoughts? May the stars watch 04:45, March 18, 2012 (UTC) That sounds pretty fun. Around here we have... the world's 3 largest indoor mall? (West Edmonton Mall) But... the snow started melting... so no ice skating. May the stars watch 15:21, March 18, 2012 (UTC) Grades (continued) (For Gilderien and Specialk16's conversation) What A-levels are taking? (you're junior, right?)--Gilderien Talk| 18:49, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Oh, I should have realised. In the UK, we take GCSE's aged 14-16, and A-levels 16-18, which is the two years before uni. One normally takes ~10 GCSEs, which are narrowed down to ~4 A-levels.--Gilderien Talk| 20:05, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Er, no. AP? From Wikipedia, I dont think so, but i did take Latin GCSE in my spare time, im not sure if that counts.--Gilderien Talk| 21:11, March 12, 2012 (UTC) Well GCSEs are a qualification you get after studying a subject such as maths or German for two years, involving coursework and modular and final exams . They are graded from A* (highest) to G (or U), and pretty much everybody takes them, as they (and the next level up) are completely free, paid for by the government.--Gilderien Talk| 20:35, March 15, 2012 (UTC) Yep, totally free. If you do really badly, you can retake some exams, and that normally cost around £9.50 for a GCSE exam ($15) but the school might even pay for a retake.--Gilderien Talk| 20:52, March 16, 2012 (UTC) 999 edits, nice.--Gilderien Talk| 10:55, March 31, 2012 (UTC) Hello, Specialk16. Hello, it is nice to meet you and nice of you to drop by my talk page. Drop by my talk page anytime and I look forword to working with you in the future. Cool Cool. I actually got back like 10 minutes ago....:/ How are you? May the stars watch 01:05, April 9, 2012 (UTC) Coolio. And nice job on 1000 edits! May the stars watch 13:23, April 9, 2012 (UTC) Nah, not really. You should though. :P May the stars watch 19:37, April 9, 2012 (UTC) Books I saw you mentioned on your talk page that you were going to list books that you thought of as an interesting read. Are you still thinking of doing this? It's just that in SF, the era of New Space Opera ushered in by Gardner Dozois is collapsing in a distinctly unpleasant fashion, filled with arguments, assertions of the superiority of subgenre X over subgenre Y, a wide variety of tasteless and offensive remarks and some criticisms of A Song of Ice and Fire that have to be seen to be believed, albeit inspired by the television adaptation, which I despise. But anyway, the cutting edge of modern SF isn't a place I particularly want to be at the moment. I'm reading reprints of old Planet Stories publications, which I'm enjoying, Wurts and Feist's Empire Trilogy (quite good fun) and some Arthur C. Clarke (hideously dated but I'm an ultra-completist). I'm thinking of reading Lois Bujold's stories of Miles Vorkosigan and I'll give almost any fantasy series a look. Exceptions follow: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, for simply existing in its current form and The Wheel of Time for going nowhere at a glacial pace. Anyway, I'll probably be having a look at Feist, Williams and Salvatore. The eighth Dark Tower book is coming out soon (24th of April). Inform the unenlightened masses and let me know if there's anything you would recommend.--Wyvern Rex. 18:28, April 12, 2012 (UTC) :By contrast, my English teacher seemed to be a quite a fan, since we had to study Brave New World, Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Farenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Player Piano and The Handmaid's Tale in the same year. Well, Melville is very probably the defining voice in American literature (though personally I prefer Heller's Catch-22) so I wish you luck but as a long-term collector of and expert on the SF genre, if you require any guides or starting points in any subgenre, you need only ask. I can help with Alternate history, Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic, Comedy, Dystopias/Utopias/Ambigous Utopias, Feminist SF, Hard SF, Military SF, Planetary Romance/Science Fantasy, Punk SF, Soft SF, Space Opera, Space Westerns, Superhumans and Time Travel.--Wyvern Rex. 09:15, April 13, 2012 (UTC) ::You could, for Lovecraft, start with At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels as it contains all of the stories commonly held to be his finest. Really though, there isn't a bad place to start with Lovecraft. In terms of Space Westerns, I have three words on the subject: Gateway, Gateway and Gateway. Fred Pohl defined the genre in his famous tale of the inscrutable Heechee and the human prospectors trying to understand them, so it is the essential book in this genre. C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett shaped the genre in its early years with heroes such as Northwest Smith and Stark of Mars, while the modern exemplar of the tradition is Mike Resnick. There are three kinds of space opera: the Golden Age of Galactic Empires and flashing sabers, the grimy, world-weary Revisionist era with low life and high tech and the New Space Opera, an uneasy fusion of the two where every aspect is turned up to eleven. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so where would you like to begin?--Wyvern Rex. 17:54, April 13, 2012 (UTC) :::OK, here we go! :::*''The Legion of Space'' by Jack Williamson: let's start at the beginning. Originally, this was a cut-price version of the then-popular Lensman, though Lensman is a little overwrought by modern standards. Williamson was always a confident author, never less than competent and always capable of telling a good story. :::*''Foundation'' by Isaac Asimov: The quintessential space opera of its time, a story of a fight against barbarism by a handful of brave scientists, discovering that even knowledge of the future may not be enough to save the galaxy. :::*''The Future History'' by Robert A. Heinlein: The type specimen after which all others were measured, Heinlein's rigorous and logical approach to the future was frequently disorienting in its scope and imagination. :::*''The Paradox Men'' by Charles L. Harness: A swashbuckling opera of space and time, with swordfighting outlaws in a non-stop adventure. Widely regarded as one of the finest SF novels of its time. :::*''Tiger! Tiger!'' by Alfred Bester: Possibly the best space adventure ever written, with a superweapon, an ambigous hero and a shady gang of government agents in a breathtaking chase through the solar system. :::*''Emphyrio'' by Jack Vance: A baroque tale set on a planet exploited for its technologically-minded workers, with a young hero who sets out to change the world and a wonderfully extravagant prose style. :::*''The Mixed Men'' by A. E. van Vogt: A highly readable and engaging introduction to one of the most complex authors in space opera's history. Van Vogt, like Harness, always guaranteed a new idea or plot development every 800 words and, unlike in some of his later works, he doesn't disappoint.--Wyvern Rex. 19:50, April 13, 2012 (UTC) ::::OK, just remember that The Paradox Men has been published as Flight into Yesterday and Tiger! Tiger! has been reprinted as The Stars My Destination. Bookshop staff are paid not to know this.--Wyvern Rex. 08:11, April 14, 2012 (UTC) :::::Don't read Prelude first! Go with original trilogy, then the two sequels Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, then Prelude and Forward the Foundation. You can then either read Asimov's Robot books or his Empire trilogy to see how the story began, followed by the authorised Second Foundation trilogy (by Benford, Bear and Brin) and the tribute anthology Foundation's Friends. Alternately, read Donald M. Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis for an updated, unauthorised and very irreverent take on the Seldon Plan.--Wyvern Rex. 15:18, April 14, 2012 (UTC) ::::::The definitive edition only contains the title story, an introduction and Lovecraft's essay Supernatural Horror in Literature. Instead, see if you can find the collections by Penguin Classics named The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories and The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories. They were released quite a while ago but proved very popular, getting through a large number of reprints and indeed are still in print today. They seem to contain all of Lovecraft's major works in horror and fantasy, though of course each volume only contains three or four of his very best. They should be easily available and affordable.--Wyvern Rex. 08:24, April 15, 2012 (UTC) :::::::Long days and pleasent nights, wanderer. Just remember the roads of fantasy are narrow, long and winding and it's easy for the unwary to stray off them. Should you feel this happening, consider me a cartographer. Anyway, while there are still Pratchett fans in the world, there will still be a couple of candles burning in the dark for humanity. Out of interest, which Lovecraft book did you get?--Wyvern Rex. 16:01, April 15, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::It's a good collection, prevented from being great solely by the absence of The Festival, the first of Lovecraft's Arkham stories and the only Cthulhu Mythos story not included therin. It would have been a coup for Gollancz if they had included it but it was later published in the companion volume Eldritch Tales. Still, virtually everything else you might want is in there, though I believe that they should have done one collection for his horror fiction and another for his fantasy tales.--Wyvern Rex. 08:36, April 16, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::Try looking out for some Robert E. Howard while you're there. Howard and Lovecraft wrote in around the same time period and often used each other's concepts.--Wyvern Rex. 15:18, April 16, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::How are things going? I've just ordered my copy of the new Dark Tower book!--Wyvern Rex. 17:59, April 24, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::Well, the SF scene is still violently tearing itself apart and my insistence that Embassytown, while good, wasn't as good as The Recollection isn't helping matters. Anyway, I have on another tab an open letter signed by Geoff Ryman, Ken MacLeod, Justina Robson, Alastair Reynolds and Paul McAuley calling for more science in SF, something I sort-of support. The debate about this is heated already and I intend to take it to the edge of destruction and beyond, in the hope that a superior SF world emerges from the ashes. Still, when I escape into the past I find quite a few neglected classics, a few of which I polish up every now and again and put on Rex Libris. I was particularly happy to discover Leigh Brackett and you can read my review of her on my Fantasy review page, at the bottom under the heading of "The Eric John Stark Saga".--Wyvern Rex. 08:44, April 25, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::The SF community is stultifying and, as far as I can tell, rotting from the inside as it dies of complacency. It's not the first time this has happened. The community has tried to preserve a vision of itself that hasn't been accurate in at least two decades and has been deeply misleading since the advent of the internet. As such, I have only ever been on the very fringe of the SF world, where people possess crazy egalitarian ideas about all subgenres being created equal. My advice is read the books, enjoy them but don't waste your time on the debates (literary, religious, scientific and political) and the backstabbing. Then again, some communities, particularly certain fantasy fan groups, positively exude a friendly and welcoming air with reasoned, intelligent and open-minded discussion of a wide variety of issues, not dissimilar to that found in the better class of churches. Discworld in particular would be very good as a religion (at the very least, Terry looks like a prophet). I hope you like Leigh Brackett. She was a Californian and I'm told there's definitely something of the state in her novels. It's quite a nostalgia trip for long-term fans who are encountering her for the first time, because you have always heard that voice long before you actually read it, even if you can't remember where...--Wyvern Rex. 12:43, April 26, 2012 (UTC) :::::::::::::There are still things worth fighting for. Discworld Monthly, the semi-official series newsletter is one of them. Other aspects of the online SF world I enjoy include Paul McAuley's infrequently updated but frequently thought-provoking Unlikely Worlds, The Way the Future Blogs by Fred Pohl, a funny but often poignant blog from an author who has lived through almost all of Genre SF's long history and (best for new readers) John Scalzi's Whatever, a refreshingly friendly and informal blog from one of the most important people in modern American SF which features discussion, reviews and competitions on a regular basis.--Wyvern Rex. 08:18, April 27, 2012 (UTC) ::::::::::::::The waters of SF run fast and wide, and though even the deepest waters can be forded by those brave enough, it's the shallow rapids, endlessly reflecting back, that catch and enrapture the unwary. I've just finished The Wind Through the Keyhole. I doubt you'll be disappointed. That is all.--Wyvern Rex. 15:04, April 27, 2012 (UTC) Well, there's a few old friends in the form of the Roland's ka-tet, his former fellow gunslinger Jamie DeCurry in a flashback sequence and a brief appearance by Steven Deschain, as well as two other characters who, for now, shall remain nameless, save to say that one we have met previously and the other we've heard about but never seen before. There's a lot of Mid-World we haven't seen before and there is much yet to be explored. The book consists of three nesting stories, starting with Roland and Co taking shelter from a starkblast, continuing with the story of how Roland and Jamie (after the events of the flashback sequence in Wizard and Glass) were sent west after the "Skin-man" and the central story is The Wind Through the Keyhole, a tale his mother used to tell him from The Great Book of Eld. After the conclusion of this tale, we hear the rest of Roland and Jamie's story before rejoining the old gang to learn one last thing about Roland that he didn't quite reveal in the second story. It is, arguably, like a less confusing and more emotionally direct version of Cloud Atlas and I doubt that anyone with a lesser talent for characterisation than King (in other words, the rest of the world's population) could have pulled it off.--Wyvern Rex. 12:37, April 28, 2012 (UTC) :It was originally more like that and the middle section, the folk tale, wasn't going to be included at all. I suppose King realised that there's only so much mileage in a story where the audience know the beginning and the ending. Still, he manages some pitch-black foreshadowing. If you haven't already, you may also be interesting in reading The Stand (Flagg's first appearance), Salem's Lot (Callahan's first appearance), Everything's Eventual (a collection featuring a novella, "The Little Sisters of Eluria", about Roland's early wanderings and "Everything's Eventual", Earnshaw's first appearance.), The Eyes of the Dragon (an outright swords and sorcery novel, starring Flagg) and Hearts in Atlantis (the life and times of Ted Brautigan and those whose lives he touched).--Wyvern Rex. 16:50, April 28, 2012 (UTC) ::In Salem's Lot, Callahan is the Catholic priest of the eponymous town, though he isn't without his problems. He was an alcoholic and increasingly distanced from his faith (there's a particularly wonderful moment where he declares that he wants to go out and directly fight evil, rather than just preaching about new definitions of sin). But then, Kurt Barlow and his assistant Straker turn up, and he joins with local resident Matt Burke, Dr. Cody, visiting writer Ben Mears (who is in a doomed love affair with a local girl named Susan, for the Tower is of many levels, do ya see it well?) and young Mark Petrie to fight back against the pestilence brought by Barlow. Callahan's most famous single scene was partially reproduced in Wolves of the Calla as he faces down Barlow so that Mark Petrie has time to flee. Barlow, however, preys on Callahan's insecurities and forces him to drink tainted vampire blood when his faith finally fails him. He survives but can not re-enter his old church, and from there you already know his story. ::Going back to The Wind Through the Keyhole primarily makes the foreshadowing more obvious. Jake rescuing Oy from the starkblast is one of the most poignant moments while the ferryman who helps Roland and the gang mentions Andy the Messenger Robot (Many Other Functions). However, the transition feels easy because King seems to be writing in a style halfway between the slightly-overwrought one used for the first four and the darker tone of the last three. Certainly, setting most of the action in the past rather than in the future helped and having the drama being primarily psychological rather than physical was a welcome touch.--Wyvern Rex. 12:59, April 29, 2012 (UTC) :::Don't get me wrong, at least ten named characters are killed during the course of the book. But, as I said, it's all in the mind. What else have you been reading? I've got some classic SF from Walter M. Miller, Cordwainer Smith and Philip K. Dick coming up. Anyway, while I was reading Terry Brooks and Tad Williams I noticed a couple of things which may be relevant to the discussion of the Inheritance Cycle. Do you think I should mention them in the articles?--Wyvern Rex. 17:21, April 29, 2012 (UTC) ::::The House of the Seven Gables eh? Lovecraft called it New England's greatest contribution to supernatural literature, so you might want to take a look at this...--Wyvern Rex. 11:28, April 30, 2012 (UTC) :::::Here's the rest. That list is by no means complete, as the two "Silver Key" stories that go between "The Statement of Randolph Carter" and "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" are missing, along with "Pickman's Model" and "The Music of Eric Zann" but it should be a decent start. Everything explicitly set in the Cthulhu Mythos (but not the Dream Cycle) is on here. For the remainder of Lovecraft's public domain fiction, including the four stories mentioned above, see his author page. Further Lovecraftian literature by C. L. Moore and Robert E. Howard is also available.--Wyvern Rex. 11:39, May 1, 2012 (UTC) ::::::Clarkesworld have just summed up SF's present existential crisis better than I ever could. Please read the heartbreaking yet optimistic and user-friendly guide. (a few famous names in the comments too!)--Wyvern Rex. 12:25, May 3, 2012 (UTC)